Despite posting in this forum, I can't say that I beat the GMAT...but I ain't doing it again. =)
As a math major and an ex-"Mathlete", I am slightly bothered by the Q49, since I think I can do a 50 or 51. But since my goal was a 720 (and would retake if below 720), I will stick to my words.
First of all, my first lang was not English; though I speak fluently, I always knew my grammar is off.
Secondly, I don't consider myself smart at all. But I am smart enough to realize that fact, and throughout my undergrad I worked hard to make up for the lack of brain ammunition.
Though I originally expected the GMAT to be a IQ-test that cannot be improved, I remember reading somewhere that if one put in more efforts than 90% of people out there, one can achieve above 90 percentile scores.
...so if you've never read that before, I can attest to that statement.
Prep time: ~70 days
Total prep hours: almost 400
CATs
GMAT Prep 1 (no studying): 610
800score quant 1: 50
800score verbal 1: 32
800score verbal 2: 34
GMAT Prep 1 repeat (after 1 month): 720 Q50V38
At this point I realized that SC is a HUGE problem for me, since in the GMAT Prep 1 retake I made 12 verbal mistakes - ALL of which are SC! It was easy for me to pick a focus on my studying. I hit the books hard, and went through anything I could get my hands on. See the list of books below.
800score verbal 3: 33
MGMAT CAT 1: 690 q48 v36
800score verbal 1 again: 34
Gotten frustrated at this point, I bought the MGMAT SC guide off Amazon - the only book I purchased =P
MGMAT CAT 2: 730 q51 v39
MGMAT CAT 3: 690 q49 v35
GMAT Prep 2: 710 q50 v36
Knewton diagnostics: (see below)
GMAT Prep 2 retake 2 days before GMAT day: 780 q50 v47
During the retake of GMAT Prep 2 I saw very little overlaps, and I only made 2 mistakes in verbal. To be honest throughout the entire time I always knew that I can hit a 780, since most of the times my ONLY mistakes happens in SC. This CAT boosted my confidence quite a bit.
I was interested in Knewton since they do a goodjob with their marketing. I tried their free sample questions on the website and thought the questions were realistic. Oh and I signed up to do the $100 thing with Josh.
About the Knewton Diagnostic Test, I scored 5XX. It was bad, but right away I knew it was way off and I didn't let it bother me. While I do believe that their algorithm needs to be adjusted, their questions were realistic. For a few instances, I found the exact OG questions they imitated. So for the ones out there who are worried because of their Knewton Diag score, I hope my experience will give you some comfort.
If given more time, I think I would have taken some more MGMAT CATs, I heard that scores will start to go up after CAT 3 since they run out of harder questions. That would have been a good confidence booster, but between the 6 MGMAT and free ones out there, I had more than enough CATs. By the way, I did the essays each time, even for the retakes.
Materials Used (While on a shoestring)
Upon recently returning from a few months of social work in an orphanage in Africa, I definitely wasn't interested in dropping money on materials I get from the local library. Like I said before, the only book I purchased was the MGMAT SC guide, the rest were from the library and passed down from a friend.
AWA
GMAT-CAT Answers to The Real Essay Questions (Arco/Thompson)
-Flipped through it for 30 mins, got the gist of it. I think it went alright, but will update the AWA score. [update: awa score 5.5]
Math
OG12: did maybe the later third of the problems, stop doing math regularly may have contributed to the drop to Q49
Others
Thursdays with Ron
-attended 3 of them, and listened for all of them in the archive. The first SC ones were great.
Knewton Free Session
-Took the free session with Dave. It was great and I decided that if my real score were below 720, I would have signed up with them
BTG Forum
-Advices, study plans and strategies found on the forum were invaluable.
-One thing of concern for me on the BTG was the source of the questions. I didn't like to spend tons of time on questions that are unrealistic. On the flip side, during the exam, I realized that there were a 3 or 4 DS questions I did on the BTG being EXACTLY the same as the real thing, numbers and everything. They all came from the same poster whom I won't name here. Mods, I'm not sure if those questionable sources break the forum rules.
Verbal
Here comes the long list of verbal material: in the order that I read
MGMAT SC guide super old edition
-passed down, very short compare to the 4th ed
Powerscore CR Bible
-didn't help me much since my CR was already at a fairly high level
MGMAT CR&RC guide super old edition
-I only read it because I had the book, but I did like the diagramming techniques for harder CR questions; I started to diagram most of the CRs, forcing me to do active reading
Schaum's English Grammar
-Reminded me of my ESL days in middle school, re-taught me some grammar with pretty useful end-of-chapter exercises
-On some sections, it wasn't sufficient (it is Schaum's outline after all)
Doing Grammar by Max Morenberg
-got this book from the library since it had wonderful reviews
-it's not bad, it was dry to read through it, but the exercises were helpful, and I think it is more suited for someone who is more logical-minded
-again, it was dry, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I don't think this is for someone with no knowledge in grammar whatsoever, but it is a good book. In hindsight, it was a good idea to go through Schaum's before this book.
Element of Style
-I started to like grammar at this point and enjoyed it
Princeton Review's Grammar Smart
-I think I liked this book the best, mainly because of its humor; I must admit they probably tried hard to make this book enjoyable, and it worked for me
-also found the audio book version at the library, so I listened to it before I fall asleep every now and then, the audio version is more fun
MGMAT SC guide 4th Ed
-the last book to seal the deal. After all these other grammar books, I understood the SC guide quite well, and stepped up my SC accuracy to the 85-90% range
-also came with some extra CATs and the SC question bank, there is great value in this book
Last but not least: OG 12 & OG Verbal 1st Ed
-Went through the verbal sections in detail: CR 2 times, RC once and SC 3-4 times
Words of Advice
I followed the strategies from various success stories, and modified my strategy along the way. The strategies on this forum are fairly complete, so I won't comment further. Two seemingly small things that helped me are below.
Disable Facebook
First thing I noticed is that I checked my facebook too much. So I went into system32 and blocked the port. That works like a charm. Believe or not, taking out this distraction helped my efficiency quite a bit.
Eat well & Exercise
I cannot stress exercising enough. It was a great 're-boot' for the brain, and I actually noticed my hit rates being consistently higher on the evenings of the days I exercised.
Find a Way Away from GMAT
Along the same line as exercising, learn to forget GMAT sometimes. I went through almost the entire series of The Sopranos during my prep, and guess what, when Tony Soprano is using bad grammar, it don't bother me.
That's all, hope this can give some materials and confidence for fellow GMAT takers with verbal trouble.
PS. grand $ total of my GMAT experience: $250(GMAC) + $23(MGMAT SC) - $100(Knewton)=$173, how's that for an ROI!
As a math major and an ex-"Mathlete", I am slightly bothered by the Q49, since I think I can do a 50 or 51. But since my goal was a 720 (and would retake if below 720), I will stick to my words.
First of all, my first lang was not English; though I speak fluently, I always knew my grammar is off.
Secondly, I don't consider myself smart at all. But I am smart enough to realize that fact, and throughout my undergrad I worked hard to make up for the lack of brain ammunition.
Though I originally expected the GMAT to be a IQ-test that cannot be improved, I remember reading somewhere that if one put in more efforts than 90% of people out there, one can achieve above 90 percentile scores.
...so if you've never read that before, I can attest to that statement.
Prep time: ~70 days
Total prep hours: almost 400
CATs
GMAT Prep 1 (no studying): 610
800score quant 1: 50
800score verbal 1: 32
800score verbal 2: 34
GMAT Prep 1 repeat (after 1 month): 720 Q50V38
At this point I realized that SC is a HUGE problem for me, since in the GMAT Prep 1 retake I made 12 verbal mistakes - ALL of which are SC! It was easy for me to pick a focus on my studying. I hit the books hard, and went through anything I could get my hands on. See the list of books below.
800score verbal 3: 33
MGMAT CAT 1: 690 q48 v36
800score verbal 1 again: 34
Gotten frustrated at this point, I bought the MGMAT SC guide off Amazon - the only book I purchased =P
MGMAT CAT 2: 730 q51 v39
MGMAT CAT 3: 690 q49 v35
GMAT Prep 2: 710 q50 v36
Knewton diagnostics: (see below)
GMAT Prep 2 retake 2 days before GMAT day: 780 q50 v47
During the retake of GMAT Prep 2 I saw very little overlaps, and I only made 2 mistakes in verbal. To be honest throughout the entire time I always knew that I can hit a 780, since most of the times my ONLY mistakes happens in SC. This CAT boosted my confidence quite a bit.
I was interested in Knewton since they do a goodjob with their marketing. I tried their free sample questions on the website and thought the questions were realistic. Oh and I signed up to do the $100 thing with Josh.
About the Knewton Diagnostic Test, I scored 5XX. It was bad, but right away I knew it was way off and I didn't let it bother me. While I do believe that their algorithm needs to be adjusted, their questions were realistic. For a few instances, I found the exact OG questions they imitated. So for the ones out there who are worried because of their Knewton Diag score, I hope my experience will give you some comfort.
If given more time, I think I would have taken some more MGMAT CATs, I heard that scores will start to go up after CAT 3 since they run out of harder questions. That would have been a good confidence booster, but between the 6 MGMAT and free ones out there, I had more than enough CATs. By the way, I did the essays each time, even for the retakes.
Materials Used (While on a shoestring)
Upon recently returning from a few months of social work in an orphanage in Africa, I definitely wasn't interested in dropping money on materials I get from the local library. Like I said before, the only book I purchased was the MGMAT SC guide, the rest were from the library and passed down from a friend.
AWA
GMAT-CAT Answers to The Real Essay Questions (Arco/Thompson)
-Flipped through it for 30 mins, got the gist of it. I think it went alright, but will update the AWA score. [update: awa score 5.5]
Math
OG12: did maybe the later third of the problems, stop doing math regularly may have contributed to the drop to Q49
Others
Thursdays with Ron
-attended 3 of them, and listened for all of them in the archive. The first SC ones were great.
Knewton Free Session
-Took the free session with Dave. It was great and I decided that if my real score were below 720, I would have signed up with them
BTG Forum
-Advices, study plans and strategies found on the forum were invaluable.
-One thing of concern for me on the BTG was the source of the questions. I didn't like to spend tons of time on questions that are unrealistic. On the flip side, during the exam, I realized that there were a 3 or 4 DS questions I did on the BTG being EXACTLY the same as the real thing, numbers and everything. They all came from the same poster whom I won't name here. Mods, I'm not sure if those questionable sources break the forum rules.
Verbal
Here comes the long list of verbal material: in the order that I read
MGMAT SC guide super old edition
-passed down, very short compare to the 4th ed
Powerscore CR Bible
-didn't help me much since my CR was already at a fairly high level
MGMAT CR&RC guide super old edition
-I only read it because I had the book, but I did like the diagramming techniques for harder CR questions; I started to diagram most of the CRs, forcing me to do active reading
Schaum's English Grammar
-Reminded me of my ESL days in middle school, re-taught me some grammar with pretty useful end-of-chapter exercises
-On some sections, it wasn't sufficient (it is Schaum's outline after all)
Doing Grammar by Max Morenberg
-got this book from the library since it had wonderful reviews
-it's not bad, it was dry to read through it, but the exercises were helpful, and I think it is more suited for someone who is more logical-minded
-again, it was dry, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I don't think this is for someone with no knowledge in grammar whatsoever, but it is a good book. In hindsight, it was a good idea to go through Schaum's before this book.
Element of Style
-I started to like grammar at this point and enjoyed it
Princeton Review's Grammar Smart
-I think I liked this book the best, mainly because of its humor; I must admit they probably tried hard to make this book enjoyable, and it worked for me
-also found the audio book version at the library, so I listened to it before I fall asleep every now and then, the audio version is more fun
MGMAT SC guide 4th Ed
-the last book to seal the deal. After all these other grammar books, I understood the SC guide quite well, and stepped up my SC accuracy to the 85-90% range
-also came with some extra CATs and the SC question bank, there is great value in this book
Last but not least: OG 12 & OG Verbal 1st Ed
-Went through the verbal sections in detail: CR 2 times, RC once and SC 3-4 times
Words of Advice
I followed the strategies from various success stories, and modified my strategy along the way. The strategies on this forum are fairly complete, so I won't comment further. Two seemingly small things that helped me are below.
Disable Facebook
First thing I noticed is that I checked my facebook too much. So I went into system32 and blocked the port. That works like a charm. Believe or not, taking out this distraction helped my efficiency quite a bit.
Eat well & Exercise
I cannot stress exercising enough. It was a great 're-boot' for the brain, and I actually noticed my hit rates being consistently higher on the evenings of the days I exercised.
Find a Way Away from GMAT
Along the same line as exercising, learn to forget GMAT sometimes. I went through almost the entire series of The Sopranos during my prep, and guess what, when Tony Soprano is using bad grammar, it don't bother me.
That's all, hope this can give some materials and confidence for fellow GMAT takers with verbal trouble.
PS. grand $ total of my GMAT experience: $250(GMAC) + $23(MGMAT SC) - $100(Knewton)=$173, how's that for an ROI!
Last edited by iamtensai on Thu May 27, 2010 5:17 am, edited 2 times in total.
